Brock Lesnar Isn't Going Back To the WWE Just Yet, UFC Is Still Home

Looks like former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has made an appearance for the media, albeit a short one, but an appearance nonetheless.

Lesnar's training partner, who also happens to fight in the UFC heavyweight division, Chris Tuchscherer, put on the "Winter Brawl" Crowbar MMA event in Grand Forks North Dakota last night. The card was far from being a UFC or Strikeforce caliber event, but one interesting feature was that Brock Lesnar made a public appearance and addressed the crowd.

According to Steven, Brock looked to be in good spirits, and yes, he is still rocking the beard. More importantly, Brock said he was looking forward to 2011. When a crowd member said he was getting his belt back, Brock agreed and shouted out to the crowd on numerous occasions that he was.

Now whether or not Brock is getting that belt back is obviously a topic of heated debate, considering the devastating fashion in which he lost the UFC heavyweight strap to Cain Velasquez this past October at UFC 121.

The important bit of information to take away from Brock's public appearance last night, is that his intentions seem to be to stick with the sport of mixed martial arts and to try and right his wrongs.

Up until now everything written about Lesnar by the media was pure speculation, by way of the fact that Lesnar had not spoken to the media or made any public appearances since his loss to Velasquez.

Dana White was expecting to setup Frank Mir v. Lesnar III until Twitter fans put a stop to that. Then the wrestling observer reported that Brock wanted to fight Roy Nelson for his comeback. There were also talks of Lesnar quitting MMA altogether and going back to the WWE.

Well it seems like quitting wasn't an option for Brock Lesnar, and it will maybe come to the surprise of many. When Brock got fed up of the WWE, he left it to try and make the Minnesota Vikings, when he was offered a job with their NFL Europa affiliate he turned them down. History has shown that when the going gets tough, Brock moves onto other things.

Brock has said on numerous occasions that mixed martial arts is his calling, and judging by his public address last night, one could guess that maybe it is really the case.

We still don't know what Brock's immediate future is, but Dana White has said he will be talking with Brock's camp this week. Fans and media can expect further developments on the Brock Lesnar front in the next couple of weeks.

When Brock does comeback it will be very interesting to see what kinds of adjustments he has made to his training regimen in order to tune his game up. Sparring sessions with a couple of shots to the face are going to be important, as evidenced by Brock's inability to roll with the punches. Luckily for Brock, rolling with the punches seems to be something most guys can learn as explained by Urijah Faber.

"We've all been there, where Lesnar is at," Faber told
. Faber went on, "Dude, getting hit is not the coolest thing to have done to you, but it's not that big of a deal. It takes a ton of sparring and some great defense and a knowledge of what it's like to get hit, to be able to get used to it."

"I think he's going to be a great fighter as long as he decides to do that, he needs to get in there and accept 'hey I'm going to get hit and there are guys who are better at punching than I am.' But he just needs to put in the time like everyone else." These quotes were transcribed by Yahoo's Steve Coefield. Faber talks about Brock Lesnar from the six minute point onwards.

Now I am no fighter myself, but I think the one other thing Brock needs to drill is working out of the clinch against the cage. Cain Velasquez said so himself to Sportsnet's own "Showdown" Joe Ferraro, that when Brock had him pinned against the cage, he was strong there. Cain went on to say that it was difficult to get out of that position against the cage, but Brock let Cain Velasquez out by going for another take down instead of working against the cage.

It seems like wrestling against the cage maybe one of Brock's strengths that he isn't using, and would serve him well against guys with good take down defense.

Brock won't be winning any striking battles against the top strikers and will definitely need to maximize the ways he can use his wrestling to neutralize the top strikers and using the clinch against the fence is probably one of those ways.

In any case, it's good to see that Brock is willing to take on the challenge of making a comeback. The main question will be whether or not he puts in the time and effort to shore up his major weaknesses.

Leon Horne has been contributing to The Bleacher Report for two years now. He focuses mainly on mixed martial arts, but he has also written about tennis, football and hockey. Recently Leon began interviewing professional athletes and hopes to continue to have these new experiences. Just send me a message if you want to talk sports or discuss any opportunities.